This invention relates generally to a medical device and, more specifically, to a medical device that prevents inadvertent punctures with contaminated needles.
Among the most frequently reported personnel injuries in hospitals are accidental needlesticks. Such needlesticks commonly occur when the sharp portion of a needle unintentionally enters the skin of healthcare personnel following the needle's use on a patient. Serious blood borne diseases including AIDS or hepatitis B can be transmitted to the healthcare personnel through an accidental needlestick following a needle's use on an infected patient.
The period of greatest risk for serious accidental needlestick injuries occurs after a patient has been penetrated and before a needle is discarded. Proper disposal of a used needle usually ends by discarding the needle into a hard-walled plastic container. Prior to discarding the needle, it may be recapped, broken, or removed from its attachment site on, for example, a catheter or syringe. Needlestick injuries commonly occur to the heatlthcare personnel while they are performing these tasks. When used needles are disposed of improperly, hospital maintenance and laundry staff are also at risk of sustaining needlestick injuries.
Because of the serious risk of inadvertent needle-punctures, there is a clear need to improve the process of disposing of used needles such that the risk of disease transmission attributed to accidental needlestick injuries to healthcare personnel is reduced. Various attempts to reduce the risk of needlestick injuries have focussed on either redesigning needle caps or adding recapping apparatus. Other attempts to alleviate the problem have focussed on redesigning medical devices used with the needles. Typical needle protection systems are disclosed, for example, in U.S. Pat. Nos. 4,725,267; 4,917,672; 4,921,490 and 5,015,240. The disadvantages of prior approaches are that they are complex and expensive to manufacture. They are also limited in their application to a wide variety of needle types and sizes.
The object of this invention, therefore, is to provide improved, inexpensive medical devices that facilitate safe disposal of used needles.